Religion and drugs

Many religions have expressed positions on what is acceptable to consume as a means of intoxication for spiritual, pleasure, or medicinal purposes.

In the book Inside the Neolithic Mind, the authors, archaeologists David Lewis-Williams and David Pearce argue that hallucinogenic drugs formed the basis of neolithic religion and rock art. Similar practices and images are found in some contemporary "stone-age" Indigenous peoples in South America using yaje.

Some scholars have suggested that Ancient Greek mystery religions employed entheogen, such as the Kykeon central to the Eleusinian Mysteries, to induce a trance or dream state. Research conducted by John R. Hale, Jelle Zeilinga de Boer, Jeffrey P. Chanton and Henry A. Spiller suggests that the prophecies of the Delphic Oracle were uttered by Priestesses under the influence of gaseous vapors exuded from the ground. Their findings are published in Questioning the Delphic Oracle: Overview / An Intoxicating Tale and is available for purchase here.

In Buddhism the Right View (samyag-dṛṣṭi / sammā-diṭṭhi) can also be translated as "right perspective", "right outlook" or "right understanding", is the right way of looking at life, nature, and the world as they really are for us. It is to understand how our reality works. It acts as the reasoning with which someone starts practicing the path. It explains the reasons for our human existence, suffering, sickness, aging, death, the existence of greed, hatred, and delusion. Right view gives direction and efficacy to the other seven path factors. It begins with concepts and propositional knowledge, but through the practice of right concentration, it gradually becomes transmuted into wisdom, which can eradicate the fetters of the mind. An understanding of right view will inspire the person to lead a virtuous life in line with right view. In the Pāli and Chinese canons, it is explained thus:

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